Tommy Jordan

It’s true. There’s no denying it. The absolute maelstrom of rapid change and devolving societal norms that every prepper author in every novel in the genre ever predicted are coming true. Across the US, the prepper types are finally getting to say they told you so. I started to title this Prepper’s Final Exam, but that wouldn’t be accurate. What has been going on throughout the US and the world these past two months has literally been ripped from the pages of most every post-apocalyptic author I’ve ever read, but this crisis is still far from the apocalyptic civilization-ending types of events preppers plan for. This isn’t a CME, EMP attack, Chinese invasion (well, maybe that last one. Hmm. Too soon?) But is has provided a chance for the preparedness types the world over to take stock of their game plans, test their preparedness, and give some tough love to … Read the rest…

I’m sorry I’ve been too busy to write on this blog lately, but between maintaining all the other sites and trying to find time to live life and get work done, I rarely have time to simply sit down and blog. In fact, I intended this as a Facebook post, but I’ve posted similar content over the years on social media and this medium allows me the best opportunity to simply refer back to the article at a future date. So, let’s dive in, shall we? Watching my Language Apparently I can run a moderately-successful business, work all over the world, educate people on a variety of subjects, and yet people still think I resort to words like “Fuck” because I lack the intelligence to simply insert another piece of vernacular with which they themselves would be more comfortable, as if I am being both ignorant and rude simultaneously. Let’s … Read the rest…

I’ve been sitting here thinking about writing for the last two days, well, nights anyway. I don’t really have a topic in mind, but its cathartic to me, so here it is. The past few months have been hella-crazy. I realized the other day that it’s merely days from being officially summer and I haven’t even made the first plan for what I want to do this summer or how to go about doing it. There’s just been so much going on in my life since February of this year that I’ve not really had a single moment of free time in the last four months until these last two days. Most of you know I decided to run for commissioner in my county back in February. Just the act of running for office was an experience I’ll never forget. I’ve been the kind of person that enjoys challenges my … Read the rest…

We’ve all seen it plastered on the national news these last two years. The encryption debate between tech companies and civilians wanting to keep their data private is being weighed against the government’s desire to gain access to anything and everything they can in the hunt to stop terrorists. Anyone besides me ever notice it’s always “terrorists,” not just criminals? Anyway, the thought occurred to me late last night to look at the argument another way and see what I’d feel about it. It’s not a hard decision for me, personally. I’m firmly ensconced on the side of a person’s right to privacy over some government’s desire to monitor its citizens. Still, maybe it’s worth trying to have the conversation another way. Let’s take the technology out of it and consider the idea as it would relate to the rights of privacy of the individual. The government argues that the … Read the rest…

This is gonna be a long one. No, seriously, go get a bag of chips or something before you commit to this. There is a lot of information here and I don’t want you to be jumping all over the web to find links to stuff so I’m just going to put it all here in one place. Feel free to get halfway through and take a nap. I did! State of the Union – Where we are now. We’re living in an age that’s different than any time in human history. Techincally that’s always true, no matter what time in history you say it, but hopefully you’ll get my meaning if you keep readong. The reasons I’m going to focus on today are mostly related to technology. One very important factor of technology affects all of us in a way we might not have anticipated. This past few … Read the rest…

So, yesterday made it real. All the planning and ticket-purchasing and preparation were exciting at moments and frustrating at others, but it wasn’t actually “real” to me yet. Yesterday I walked into the bank and completely drained my “honeymoon savings” account. I’d been putting money into that account for the last five years. Sometimes I’d put in some one month and have to pull some back the next to handle a bill or company expense or tax payment or something of the like. These last two years I’ve been more diligent about leaving it there and trying to forget it exists. That worked pretty well overall. But honestly it just felt good to finally be able to go in there and take it all out and know I was finally going to use it for what I’d wanted to use it on since the day I opened the account. … Read the rest…

Some of you have been following the issue the Stanly County board of commissioners has been tossing around regarding the possible merging of the Board of Health and the Social Services Board. I wrote an article in anticipation of the August 7th hearing, which you can read here if you’d like. I had the pleasure of speaking at that meeting and being given the opportunity to express my thoughts about the merger. I thought it was time to write a follow-up article and reveal a little more than I did previously. I’ve held off writing the article or any follow-up pieces before now out of respect for the candor the commissioners showed me when speaking to me privately when I called them. I won’t mention any names here in regards to any conversations I had with commissioners because I would like to preserve the opportunity to engage them in future … Read the rest…

You may have heard of the memo published by former- Google employee, James Damore titled “Google’s Idealogical Echo Chamber” wherein he discusses, quite candidly, the discrepancies that exist between women and men in tech jobs and lists the anthropological and psychological reasons those differences exists. If you haven’t read the memo, I encourage you to read it here: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3914586/Googles-Ideological-Echo-Chamber.pdf A few days following publication of the document, Jamed Damore was fired from Google. I can’t speak as to whether I’d personally have made that decision, but I can certainly understand why a global corporation couldn’t have their name associated with the opinion piece and needed to distance themselves from it. Personally, I think the paper was spot on, but I also think maybe I’d have have fired him too if I’d been his boss. Moving on; the paper discusses a lot of ways men and women in the workforce, specifically … Read the rest…

Today was an interesting day I thought worth sharing with you folks from the ether. Just one more glimpse into what goes on in some other people’s lives you might find interesting.I made a Facebook post about it earlier and some of you were interested in the subject, so why not take a few minutes and write it up in a post? I am a member of an organization called ARES. That’s an acronym for Amateur Radio Emergency Services. Sounds conflicting, right? Which is it? It is a bunch of amateurs or does it have something to do with emergency services? Well, the answer is “yes.” lol ARES members and Auxcomm members are volunteer HAM radio operators with their own equipment and radio gear who have taken the time on their own to get trained and certified by the FCC in how to work with the incident command system. The … Read the rest…

I heard something tonight that resonated with me. “Adventure is just hardship with an inflated sense of self.” I’ve spent the last three days constantly going over the topography, language barriers, cultural challenges, work-ethic challenges, and even the challenges of simple day-to-day living in Nepal. Yes, Nepal. Don’t hurt yourself. I’ll get there in a minute. Some moments my head is full of wonder at the idea of the personal challenges. Other moments it’s full of me trying to remind myself what a hell-hole the third-world can be if you’re used to your western amenities and have to do without them for a few years. One of my clients, from time-to-time, does what other vendors do with our market; they roll us up into their own solution for an in-house out-sourced solution to solve problems. Huge construction companies have contractors galore, electricians, teams of electrical engineers and soil analysts, project … Read the rest…

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